Poker is a well known game that traditionally uses a fifty-two card deck of standard playing cards. This deck has four suits—Spades, Hearts, Diamonds and Clubs and each suit has thirteen cards of the ranks Deuce up to Ace.
Poker uses poker hand rankings to determine the value of the poker hand. In five card poker, the traditional poker hand rankings are Royal Flush, a Straight Flush, a Four of a Kind, a Full House, a Flush, a Straight, a Three of a Kind, a Two Pair, one Pair and High Card in the hand.
Poker started as a multiple player game in which a player attempted to achieve a poker hand having a higher ranking than the poker hand of the other players. With the advent of casino gaming, poker has also become a single player game, most often player on an electronic video poker machine which has become a well know gaming device and is found in most gaming establishments.
Video poker that is played on an electronic video poker gaming machine is designed to replicate the play of a hand of poker. Typically, the player is not playing against any other player's hands or against a dealer's hand; the player is simply attempting to achieve the highest ranking poker hand possible from the cards displayed to the player. The higher the ranking of the poker hand achieved by the player, the greater the player's winnings based on the number of coins, tokens or credits wagered by the player. Typically, a payout schedule is posted on the gaming machine to advise the player of the payoffs available for certain winning card combinations.
The forerunner of all electronic video poker gaming machines is the video Draw Poker machine that deals cards from a standard fifty-two card poker deck and displays a single five card hand to the player. The player then selects which of the five cards he wishes to hold (or discard depending on the format of the gaming machine). The draw poker machine then displays replacement cards for the cards the player has discarded. The player wins or loses based on conventional poker hand rankings for the resulting five card hand. In video Draw Poker, the conventional poker hand rankings that are winning combinations are a Royal Flush, a Straight Flush, a Four of a Kind, a Full House, a Flush, a Straight, a Three of a Kind, a Two Pair and a Pair of Jacks or Better. Any other poker hand ranking is conventionally a losing hand. A payout table is established which shows the amount to be awarded to the player for winning hands and is based on the number of coins wagered by the player and the type of poker hand achieved.
The classic draw poker machine has been modified to use Jokers as wild cards or to use Deuces (or even other cards) as wild cards. “Jokers Wild” and “Deuces Wild” draw poker still display to the player a single five card hand and allow the player to discard unwanted cards and receive replacement cards. The payout table is modified to recognize the differing odds for achieving various poker hands when wild cards are involved. Furthermore, different poker hand rankings are used in the pay table to recognize different winning combinations that can be achieved using wild cards.
There are many poker formats used in video draw poker. These poker game formats include Jacks (or even Tens) or Better Draw Poker, Bonus Poker, Double Bonus Poker, Double Double Bonus Poker, Super Double Bonus Poker, Triple Bonus Poker, Deuces Wild Poker, Jokers Wild Poker, Deuces and Jokers Wild Poker, etc. Many electronic video poker gaming machines are provided with a menu so that the player can indicate his choice of the poker game format that the player wishes to play and the player then makes his wager based on upon that choice of poker game format. Each poker format has its own pay table associated therewith.
Poker games are played using a “standard” deck or “conventional” deck of fifty-two playing cards. As is well known, a standard or conventional deck of playing cards has four suits Spades, Hearts, Diamonds and Clubs) with each suit having thirteen ranked cards (Deuce, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Jack, Queen, King and Ace).
There have been attempts to add additional cards (besides the addition of one or more Jokers) to the conventional fifty-two card deck and to use such a modified deck in a video poker game. In one version, five extra cards were added to the fifty-two card deck. These cards were an Ace, a King, a Queen, a Jack and a Ten of a fifth suit. The resulting deck had fifty-seven cards. The method of play using this deck was five card draw poker and winning hand combinations included Five-of-a-Kind (of Aces, Kings, Queens, Jacks or Tens) and a Royal Flush of the fifth suit.
One of the drawbacks of this game was that the difficulty of achieving winning hand combinations increases dramatically when five extra cards are added to the conventional fifty-two card deck. The number of possible ending five card hands increases from approximately 2.6 million to approximately 4.2 million.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a new poker game in which at least one extra card is added to the conventional fifty-two card deck to create at least a fifty-three card deck.
It is a feature of the present invention to provide for a method of playing poker in which a modified deck of playing cards is used. A fifty-third card, which can be of any of the conventional card ranks but is of a fifth suit, is added to a standard fifty-two card deck. Preferably this fifty-third card is an Ace.
It is an alternate feature of the present invention to provide for a method of playing poker in which a different modified deck of playing cards is used. A fifty-third card, which can be of any the conventional card ranks and any of the original card suits, is added to a standard fifty-two card deck. Preferably this fifty-third card is an Ace, such as the Ace of Spades.
It is another alternate feature of the present invention to provide for a method of playing poker in which a different modified deck of playing cards is used. A fifty-third card, which can be of any the conventional card ranks and all of the original card suits, is added to a standard fifty-two card deck. Preferably this fifty-third card is an Ace which is considered as having all of the suits as its suit.
It is an advantage of the present invention that, when the additional card is from a fifth suit, additional winning card combinations can be used which gives the player additional chances to achieve winning outcomes. These winning card combinations can include Five-of-a-Kind.
It is an alternative advantage of the present invention that, when the additional card is from a one of the conventional ranks and from one of the original suits, additional winning card combinations can be used which gives the player additional chances to achieve winning outcomes. These winning card combinations can include Five-of-a-Kind. The probability of achieving a conventional winning outcome may also be increased.
It is another alternative advantage of the present invention that, when the additional card is from a one of the conventional ranks and is considered to be all of the original suits, additional winning card combinations can be used which gives the player additional chances to achieve winning outcomes. These winning card combinations can include Five-of-a-Kind. The probability of achieving a conventional winning outcome may also be increased.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description.